


Scars

by sarahenany



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 10:01:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15434586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahenany/pseuds/sarahenany
Summary: Astrid finds out who put scars on Hiccup. Because I couldn't let HTTYD1 slide.





	Scars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sakumi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sakumi/gifts).



> 1\. Thursday26 beta'ed, rewrote a large part of this, and generally went above and beyond the call of duty. Any remaining errors are mine. Thursday is awesome.  
> 2\. This is kind of... anti-Hiccstrid? So click Back now if that bothers you.  
> 3\. Sakumi is our angel.

“I could  _ totally _ get used to this,” Hiccup groans, breaking free from their kiss with a laugh. Astrid smiles at him and leans in again, sealing their lips together. They’re lying in the middle of Hiccup and Toothless’ cove, in a soft patch of grass. Hiccup was showing Astrid this place, telling her how special it was to them, and she couldn’t resist kissing him. Really, Hiccup is too cute for his own good sometimes. 

Hiccup has already shooed Toothless away, giving them some privacy, even though the Night Fury didn’t seem to enthused to be doing so. Stormfly is back in the village, at Hiccup’s request to just show Astrid this time. It’s sweet, and it reminded her of that first ride they took together. 

She’s straddling his hips, pressing their fronts together, her hands running through his hair with every kiss she plants. Hiccup’s hands are awkward on her hips, but she’s sure it’s from nerves. They’ve already taken off his vest, leaving him in his red tunic. Years ago, she wouldn’t have thought she’d be here. Hiccup has always been smaller, and weaker, and not someone she would have noticed. But he’s grown into himself over the past few years. Sure, he’s still a little on the skinny side, but he’s got lean muscle and carries himself with confidence. And isn’t that attractive!

He’s still kissing her back, but he’s fumbling and unsure. His hands aren’t doing much, and he should be trying to take off her armor. Even if he’s nervous, he should know that much… right? She takes his hands and moves them up her body, to her ribs, hoping that maybe he’ll get the hint and start working on that. He freezes a bit, but she won’t comment on it.

She grinds into him, moving her own hands to the bottom of his tunic. He moans again, and she pulls away, whispering against his lips, “Can I?” He nods and she pulls the material over his head. She tosses it aside and smiles at him before kissing him again. Her hands run down his body and her fingers catch on a raised bump on his lower back. “Woah, sorry,” she pants, moving her hands to his stomach. “Did that hurt?”

He shakes his head. “No, s’fine. S’gotta be ten years old.”

This time, he kisses her first. She smirks and runs her hands over his body. Hiccup’s skin isn’t like any Viking’s that she’s touched before, not even the girls. He moans and squirms when she runs her hands over his ribs, and around his nipples. Maybe he’s closest to Heather; the Berserkers are more finely built than the Hooligans. Hiccup is all wiry muscle under soft skin, and he’s lacking the same scars that other Vikings have. Understandable, since Hiccup wasn’t very involved in the dragon raids when they were younger, and his largest scar is his missing leg from the fight with the Red Death. Still, there are some scars.

She unbuckles her own shoulder pads and shrugs them off, since Hiccup doesn’t seem to be getting the message. When it’s off, she presses their fronts together, her hands splayed over his back. And she feels more scars. “Hey,” she breathes, panting against his lips, “Any of these still hurt? Any I should watch out for?” As she asks, her fingers catch on puckered skin.

She swears she can hear Toothless make a sound of disagreement, and that’s a little odd. The dragon is usually pretty good at letting Hiccup have some private time. The friendly pat on her side and sigh from Hiccup prevent her from thinking about it too much. “No, Astrid. They’re all five or ten years old as well.”

His admission gives her pause. She sits back on his lap and gives him a confused look. “Hey,” Hiccup laughs nervously, “What’s with the face? I was  _ enjoying _ this.”

His hand is heavy on her hip, but she won’t move. Instead, she looks at Hiccup’s skin more closely, and Hiccup allows her to without a word.

There are actually a lot of scars. They are all over his front, and when she turns him, they are all over his back too. There are all sorts: long and jagged, deep and puckered, shallow and smooth, all old, scars on top of scars. Astrid’s eyes are wide, and when she looks up at Hiccup’s face again, his face darkens. “They say girls like scars,” he says, eyes narrow and voice wary. “This wouldn’t be the best time to find out they were lying.” Protective as always, Toothless growls from somewhere around them. 

“No!” she says quickly, hands going to his shoulders. Gods, there are scars there too. She lets go of him, like she’s been burnt. Hiccup’s face darkens further, and Toothless’ growl deepens. She cups his face and kisses him. “You’re beautiful, Hiccup.” She kisses him again, and he softens under her a bit. She pulls back and stares into his eyes. “It’s just… you said ten years. That they’re ten years old.”

He swallows. “Yeah.”

“The Red Death was four years ago,” she says flatly.

Hiccup’s eyes dart from side to side and settle on his lap.”Well, uh, dragon fighting,” he says, too lightly. “You know how it is… was.”

Astrid’s heart is beating in her throat. “ _ I _ do.” She pauses. “ _ You _ don’t.”

He glares at her, but she won’t back down. “Can’t you just let this go?”

If anything, her desire to find the truth has heightened. “You’ve never fought a dragon.” Her tone is a little harsh, and Toothless growls again. She forces him to look her in the eye. “Where did you get your scars, Hiccup?”

Hiccup’s eyes shutter and he gets that look on his face. It's a look he gets when he’s trying to protect someone, someone he cares about. Her eyes go wide and she leans in close, whispering, “Was it Toothless?”

She knows she’s being irrational, but it’s only reinforced when Hiccup bursts out laughing. Toothless is not amused though, growling deeply at her. “Toothless?” Hiccup asks, incredulous. “He’d never hurt me.” He turns his head and his face softens. “He helped patch me up.” 

Astrid doesn’t know if their romantic moment could have been salvaged even if Toothless hadn't picked that moment to slink over and push his head under Hiccup’s arm. Astrid has to move back to make room for the dragon’s head and she ends up scooting completely out of Hiccup’s lap. Hiccup doesn’t seem to mind, though, wrapping his arms around his friend and murmuring, “You’d never hurt me, bud. Right?” Toothless gives a chirr of assent and nuzzles into Hiccup’s hold. “Except for those marks I got from crashing.”

Toothless grumbles and raises his eyebrow at Hiccup, as if to say,  _ Wouldn’t happen if you weren’t so reckless. _

“Yeah bud,” Hiccup laughs, “I know it’s not your fault.” He scratches a spot behind Toothless’ ear that has the dragon purring. “You keep me safe,” he whispers, voice dropping to that intimate register Astrid has only ever heard him use with Toothless. “I make you worry. I know, I know…” Toothless snorts.

“Hiccup,” Astrid says slowly, and Hiccup’s eyes snap to her, like he’s forgotten she’s even there, “who gave you all those scars?” Gobber? No. Gobber is too soft, too sweet, to ever strike a child. Stoick? Would he? She respects Stoick. He would never--not a child!

Toothless rolls his eyes and swings his tail around. Hiccup makes a sound of protest as the tail connects with Astrid’s chest, hard enough that she has to take a step back.

The cove tilts around Astrid and her mouth drops open. “Me?”

“No!” Hiccup blurts out, but winces when Toothless growls at him. “Okay, but it wasn’t just you, Astrid. We were kids!”

“Kids?!” Astrid stares in horror, taking in every mark that she can see. “Hiccup--you’re  _ covered _ in scars!”

“Comes with being a fishbone,” he waves a dismissive hand. “If I wasn’t so scrawny, there wouldn’t be any marks.”

“That’s no excuse!” she retorts, not believing her ears. She gets to her feet and starts pacing.

“It kind of is,” chuckles Hiccup. “Everyone else horsed around and no one got hurt.”

“But we  _ hurt  _ you!”

“Astrid…” Whatever platitude Hiccup was about to say is cut off when Toothless smacks him in the head with his tail. Toothless rumbles and nods, as if he’s agreeing with Astrid. “Ow! See?” Hiccup says, motioning towards the tail. “Horsing around. You wouldn’t call that hurting me, would you?”

Toothless lets out a loud squawk of outrage. Astrid shakes her head, diving into the hole in Hiccup’s argument. “You said it yourself. Toothless hasn’t left a mark on you.  _ We  _ have!”

“Uh… well,” Hiccup rubs the back of his neck and shrugs, “we were just kids. We didn’t know any better.”

Astrid sets her jaw. “What did we do to you, Hiccup?”

“Nothing you didn’t do to each other,” he answers quickly, waving his hands around. “Nothing that Viking kids don’t do to each other all the time. I just wasn’t strong enough to handle it.” His hands fall into his lap and he slouches. 

Astrid stares at him. “I don’t remember hitting you that hard.”

“You didn’t!” he says, hands up, placating. “You didn’t, I just wasn’t str--”

“Will you stop saying that?!” Astrid yells, stomping towards Hiccup. He’s still on the ground and she looms over him. “Did I hurt you?”

“No! Just..”

Then she notices how he’s cowering away from her, and Toothless is growling at her. She takes a step back, shocked. “You’re scared of me.”

“I’m not scared of you!” She crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow, not believing him. “Well, maybe a little,” he amends, grinning. “But you’re  _ Astrid Hofferson! _ Everyone is scared of you! You’re supposed to be scary.”

“To my enemies,” she growls, shaking her head. “Not my  _ friends _ .”

“Well,” the corner of Hiccup’s mouth quirks up, “it’s not like that line can’t be a little blurred. I mean, look at Snotlout.”

“Hiccup,” she says slowly. “Why are you trying to--to jolly me out of this?!”

“We’re friends now! I don’t want to bring up the past and change that,” he pauses, looking at the ground, “or go back to how things were.”

“How  _ were _ things, Hiccup?”

His eyes flash with anger. She’s finally pushed him here. Maybe she’ll get some real answers now. But, as fast as that spark came, it fades, Hiccup schooling his expression. “They were fine,” he mutters unhappily.

Astrid stares at him, her own anger starting to bubble to the surface. She isn’t getting anywhere. Toothless croons and nudges Hiccup, who elbows and shushes him. She snaps her attention to Toothless, his green eyes locking with hers. “You tell me,” she commands. Toothless sits back, affronted. “Please,” she growls out, already reaching the end of her patience. These two… She growls again. 

As soon as ‘please’ is out of her mouth, Toothless’ tail comes around Hiccup and turns his human to face the chest part of his dragon underbelly. Hiccup squawks at the manhandling - well, dragon-handling - but Toothless doesn’t stop. He points one claw to a deep, puckered scar on Hiccup’s back, then rumbles and looks at Astrid.

“What about that one?” she asks evenly.

Hiccup pushes away from Toothless, facing forwards again and crossing his arms over his chest, petulant. “Why do you wanna revive ancient history? I don’t--”

Astrid stalks up to him and punches him in the arm. Toothless snarls at her and she takes a couple of hasty steps back. “Fine! Okay! Fine! This is from when you found us!”

She folds her arms over her chest and waits. 

Hiccup looks embarrassed and glances back at Toothless. “It’s uh, that one’s from back when you found us… the first time… or I guess when you followed me. You were upset,” he looks up at her with wide eyes, “about the dragon training.”

She nods. She remembers. She was there. 

Hiccup swallows, after what feels like a lifetime of waiting, and continues. “I wouldn’t tell you what I was doing… and uh, you gave me what you thought I deserved. You know, for sneaking around.”

Astrid’s mouth falls open, an instinct to deny it catching in her throat. Her mind whirls with everything she used to think about Hiccup.  _ Little runt, never having to work for anything. Sneak. Cheater. Liar. _ She remembers her  _ hatred _ for the runt, the spoiled little screwup who only survived because he was the chief's son.”Let me see it again.”

Hiccup’s frown deepens and he shakes his head. But Toothless isn’t deterred. He turns Hiccup again, despite the angry noise he makes. Her stare homes in on the scar on his back again. “I never hit you there.” It’s one last denial that she hurt him. Toothless hisses at it, and she feels guilty at denying it, but she has to. 

“You didn’t,” Hiccup tells her, turning around again with another glare at Toothless, “there was a sharp stone on the ground.”

Astrid stares at him. A scar that deep… the stone must have embedded itself into his skin, or gouged out a piece of flesh. It must have been bleeding heavily underneath his vest. Hiccup must have been in a lot of pain. And he must have been hurting for everything that followed after. “You… you never said anything.”

He shrugs. “We were busy at the time. Remember? We had my ‘prize-fight’ against Hookfang, the nest, the Red Death.” He laughs. “Not a lot of time to worry about a little cut.”

“You must have been in pain.”

“Astrid,” Hiccup rolls his eyes. Toothless nudges him again and Hiccup starts petting him absently. “I’ve already told you. I’m weaker than everyone else. I can’t focus on every little thing that hurts.” He smiles and scratches Toothless under his chin. “I’d never get anything done.”

“Did I hurt you anywhere else?”

Hiccup opens his mouth, smiles, closes his mouth, laughs, then closes his mouth again. Toothless rolls his eyes and bends over, using his nose to point to a spot on Hiccup’s front, low down on his ribcage. Hiccup pushes Toothless’ head away and glares.  _ “Toothless!” _

It’s the first time she’s ever seen Hiccup genuinely angry at Toothless. Of course, that anger melts away a moment later, but it has to count for something. She kneels down on the grass next to Hiccup and looks for the scar. “Where is it?” she asks Toothless. “I can’t see anything.”

Toothless touches the place again, carefully. She still can’t see anything, but she reaches out with two fingers, pressing gingerly into the skin. Hiccup is tense and frowning, not approving of the prodding, but tolerating it. Her gentle pressure reveals an irregularity in the bottom rib. She looks up at Toothless, “Is this--?” He nods. She turns her attention to Hiccup, “What is this? Does it hurt when I touch it?” 

“No,” he says, a little too quickly, but he sounds sincere. “It hasn’t hurt since it healed. I don’t know why Toothless even remembered this one.” He glares at the dragon. “Wouldn’t even know it’s there if he hadn’t told you. Wouldn’t even be there if it hadn’t healed crooked.” He shrugs. “I just moved around too much.”

“And when did I do this?” she asks, eyes fixed on the invisible scar. 

“Ah… it might have been--” She looks up at him, giving him a piercing glare. “Okay, okay,” he concedes, “it was uh, the same time,” He sighs. “You dropped the butt of your axe on me while I was, uh, lying on the ground.”

“Dropped it?” Astrid falters. She sits back, not touching Hiccup anymore. 

Hiccup shrugs. “Kinda hit me with it, I guess.”

Astrid stands up and takes a step back. “I hit you while you were down?!”

“Well, it was my fault for falling! You just twisted my hand! I didn’t have to fall all the way to the ground!” She stares at him, appalled with herself. “And you tried to protect me from a dragon just moments later! You didn’t know Toothless was safe! You protected me! You told me to run!”

“That’s got nothing to do with it,” she argues, taking a few more steps back. “I’m supposed to  _ protect _ you from getting hurt! I’m a warrior and you’re the chief’s son! I’m not supposed to hurt you!” 

“And you did protect me!” Hiccup yells back at her. “You shouldn’t feel bad!”

Astrid shakes her head. She won’t allow his misdirection, his rationalization, to work.”I hit you, Hiccup. And I wasn’t gentle either. I hurt you. I permanently damaged your rib! That’s not okay!”

“Astrid, you hit  _ everyone  _ all the time. Everyone hits everyone all the time. We’re Vikings! We punch each other hello and kick each other goodbye!” He leans back and Toothless is right there to catch him. He rests his weight on Toothless’ leg. “And I was keeping secrets from you. It’d make sense that you’d work me over.”

“Work you over…” she repeats slowly. Instead of responding to that, and how the phrase reminds her of interrogating enemy Vikings, she looks at Toothless. Even though Hiccup is leaning against him, he’s sitting straight and stiff at Hiccup’s back. His pupils are narrowed, enough that Astrid knows that he’s serious. “Do you know any other ones that we caused?” she asks the dragon.

Eyes locked on Astrid, Toothless uses his tail to trace out scars covering Hiccup’s chest and arms. Hiccup is still, eyes downcast, like he’s about to be in trouble. The scars are faint, white lines, maybe three or four, sprinkled with puncture marks. “What are those?” Astrid asks.

Hiccup shrugs. “Punches in the arm, headbutts…” At Hiccup’s nonchalant tone, Toothless starts growling, getting loud enough to start drowning out Hiccup’s voice. “Shut up, Toothless.” 

“Those do  _ not _ look like headbutt scars,” Astrid cuts in, gesturing to the scars. 

“Headbutts with helmets,” Hiccup says over Toothless’ growl, tone still nonchalant. “Punches with finger-spikes. Falling on rocks. Or being dragged on the ground.”

“ _ Hiccup _ !” Astrid cries, horrified.

Hiccup rubs his hands together, staring at them, like she’s blaming him for this. Like he may be in trouble. Toothless warbles softly and licks the side of his head, just once. “You know I’m not the best self-defense Viking. I couldn’t stop them… they thought it was fun.” His voice goes soft at the end and it hurts Astrid’s heart.

Another memory swirls into her mind.  _ Hunt the Runt _ echoes in her head. It was a game the others loved to play. Astrid didn’t like it too much, preferring to spend her time training, or hang out with Ruffnut on occasion. She remembers seeing Hiccup running, fear painted over his young face, and she just sat and watched the others chase after him, laughing and whooping, yelling out “Hunt the Runt!” at the top of their lungs. It was the only time that Hiccup was included in their little group. No one wanted him around unless they could terrorize him. “They beat you up all the time, did they? We?” she asks, covering her mouth with her hand. 

“Not all the time. Give me  _ some _ credit, I’m a fast runner,” Hiccup jokes, but it falls flat for Astrid. She stares at him, stricken. Toothless leans down and nuzzles the side of Hiccup’s head, purring. Hiccup smiles and nuzzles back, as best as he can.

“He took care of you, didn’t he?” Astrid asks through her fingers. “When we’d beat you up, you’d come here. And he’d take care of you.”

Hiccup shrugs and leans back against Toothless’ forelegs. He closes his eyes and Toothless leans down, lapping at the scars on Hiccup’s chest and arms. “Astrid,” he keeps his eyes closed, “ _ you _ beat me up.  _ They _ beat me up. They beat  _ each other  _ up. Everybody beat  _ everybody  _ up. We’re Vikings, it’s how we communicate.” 

“I guess,” Astrid agrees, distracted. She watches Hiccup, sprawled and relaxed against Toothless. She can’t remember a time when she’s seen Hiccup so calm, so at peace. When they were younger, he had this hunted look in his eyes; now he’s always working to help everyone. She can’t imagine being so secure that she could forgive her tormentors, even make excuses for them! “Hiccup… They ganged up on you.”

“Yeah,” Hiccup concedes, with perfect equanimity. “Not so much you, but yeah, they did pound on me for fun.” Toothless growls again. “I know, I’m sorry,” he apologizes, reaching up and scratching at Toothless, eyes still closed. “I know it wasn’t much fun for you, bud.” He looks up, meeting the dragon’s eyes as best as he can. “I’m sorry it upset you so much.”

“You’re not the one who should be apologizing,” Astrid snaps.

Hiccup gives her a wry smile. “I kinda should be apologizing to him. I always came here,” he explains. “Night Fury saliva has healing properties. I knew he’d be upset to see me hurting, but I kept coming because… well, he cared. He always made me feel better after… after, you know. And I liked having a friend to take care of me. I guess I was kind of selfish.”

Toothless cries out, a sound that breaks Astrid’s heart. He shakes his head and wraps his wings around Hiccup. “Yeah, bud. I know you want to take care of me. I always came here, didn’t I?” He smiles and caresses any part of Toothless he can reach. Toothless rumbles, sounding like he’s saying  _ You better always come to me _ .

Astrid stares at the two of them. Toothless, gentling and rocking Hiccup as Hiccup smiles and teases Toothless. It’s not hard to picture a younger Hiccup, one so much more fragile, coming out to the cove, bloodied and beaten. She can picture Hiccup being held by Toothless, maybe much like the dragon’s holding his rider now, soothing and comforting any hurt that Hiccup was feeling. They all call themselves Hiccup’s friends now, but they can’t compare. Toothless has always been a better friend to Hiccup than they ever were. Possibly better than they can ever be.

“We’ve been making you miserable your entire life,” she says slowly.

“I wasn’t  _ miserable _ ,” Hiccup argues, turning to face Astrid, still curled up in Toothless’ forelegs and wings. Toothless nuzzles Hiccup again. “Yeah, there were bad days, but I was fine.”

“It was  _ not  _ fine! We were lousy friends! I’m so sorry--”

“You’re good friends now,” he cuts in, face serious.

“Is it really that simple?” she asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

“It is to me.”

That sort of forgiveness... Astrid doesn’t know what she could have done to earn it. Nothing comes to mind. If anything, Hiccup should hate her, should hate all of them. He should be thinking up revenge schemes, not showing Astrid his most special place. “How can you forgive us?” Astrid’s voice is small.

“We were  _ kids _ , Astrid! And it’s not like you guys didn’t do that to each other as well!”

“How can you not hate us? How can you just-- How could you give us another chance?”

Hiccup sits up fully, his side resting against Toothless’ stomach, one of the Night Fury’s wings and both forelegs still wrapped lovingly around him. He looks up at the dragon, adoration in his eyes. “Toothless gave me another chance,” he says softly, “after I downed him. After I  _ maimed _ him.” He palms the dragon’s cheek, and Toothless croons and nuzzles Hiccup’s hair. “I shot him down, and he lost half a tail because of me. Because of my selfish desire to prove myself. He can never fly again without help.  _ I _ did that to him, and he,” Hiccup swallows, “and he gave me his love… his trust.” He looks at Astrid again. “So where do  _ I  _ get off holding a grudge against anyone?”

Toothless nudges him again, drawing his attention back. Hiccup laughs and puts his hands on either side of Toothless’ face. They look into each other’s eyes and Astrid knows that she isn’t there anymore, not for them. She backs away, watching the two of them interact. She grabs her shoulder pads and says, “I need to go… and think this over, okay?” 

She doesn’t get an answer. 

She flees the cove as fast as she can. She doesn’t belong there, and she knows that they won’t notice she’s missing for a while. She doesn’t hold it against them; after all, she deserves much worse. She doesn’t know what ‘worse’ is exactly, but she knows one thing for sure: she doesn’t deserve Hiccup.


End file.
